The Tangled World!

Of Broomsticks and Moorons!

To say that Zacharias was displeased with the results of his sorting would be an understatement.

He didn't have any issues with Slytherin House, per se. He would have definitely preferred to be in Hufflepuff, as his family was one of its founder's direct descendants. Slytherin was a fine house in its own right, but he still resented being there.

Not because he belonged elsewhere, but because that... Hat... said he didn't belong anywhere. It just shoved him in the house with the least number of people! Used him to fill some quota of students going to Slytherin! Sure, he may not have publicly embarrassed himself the way Weasley did, but Zacharias still felt he had every right to be indignant.

Well fine! If the Hat wanted him in Slytherin, then he would gladly take the opportunity! He could play politics if he needed to!

It was no secret that everyone expected Draco Malfoy to be sorted into Slytherin, and with Lucius backing him, he would have unquestionable control of Slytherin house. No one would have dared to publicly oppose Lucius Malfoy.

With Draco in Gryffindor, though, Slytherin lacked a unifying ruler, and the power base was fractured. Theodore Nott was clearly trying to claim control, but Octavius Nott wasn't feared the way Lucius Malfoy was. Mostly because, despite also being a death eater, Octavius didn't throw money and influence around like there was no tomorrow. The Notts were a minor family, after all.

(Technically, so were the Malfoys, but no one dared to say that out loud.)

Zacharias had overheard Nott scheming with that Turpin bitch, and the two were obviously aiming for a power grab soon. Nott also failed to hide most of the letters from his father, which made it easy for Zacharias to figure out the boy's plans. One would think that the son of a death eater would know better than to leave their correspondence sitting around, especially when he shared a dorm with a political rival...

The Smith family may not elicit the same fear that a family of death eaters would, but they still had influence to throw around. Sure, the Smiths were a light family, while almost everyone in Slytherin was dark or neutral, but the Smith family was a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, held a Wizengamot seat, and ran a powerful business. Octavius Nott couldn't match that level of influence in his dreams.

So while Zacharias couldn't win allies from the upper years, most of them would at least be too scared to publicly oppose him. Really, Theodore could use some competition for control of Slytherin, and Zacharias was more than willing to provide it.

Harry was looking forward to the flying lesson. He was pretty sure his desire to fly had to do with one of his many escape fantasies he had at the Dursleys. Escape fantasies aside, though, the idea of flight did sound fun, even if it was done through something as outlandish as broomsticks.

Unfortunately, Hermione was cripplingly acrophobic, and was not looking forward to the lesson. It was kind of putting a damper on his enthusiasm.

Even more unfortunately, they shared their flying class with the Gryffindors. They only shared two classes each with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, but they shared three classes plus flying lessons with the Gryffindors. He wasn't clear on why exactly the two houses with a history of heated rivalry shared most of their classes together. From what he'd overheard from the upper years, it was either a misguided attempt to encourage house unity, or Dumbledore attempting to spite them. Either way, it meant spending more classes with Malfoy, something Harry was not keen on.

Not that the other Gryffindors were that much keener on him. Apparently, Harry was considered most likely to go to their house, and they took him going to the house of their biggest rival as some personal affront.